A look into a Romanticist museum.

As a pianist, my favourite musical pieces comes from the Romantic era. Earlier in my piano career I was fortunate enough to be able to play "Pavane" by Gabriel Faure and loved it, so here is the piece! That musical history class that I had to take to complete my piano training will surely come of aid here.

Faure - Pavane op 50 (1887)

As with many other composers from the Romantic period, chromaticism is noted in many of their works. The use of dissonance and unresolved tones help to create a more mystical, whimsical approach to music, as opposed to the earlier classical music that follows a strict structure and must always be resolved. In this piece in particular, the term "Tempo Rubato" comes to mind, literally translated to "borrowed time"; the composer speeds up and slows down to induce emotive responses in the listener. These new innovations came as people were straying from the more traditional technical structures of the Sonata, Quartets, and Symphonies. Medieval dances such as the "Pavane", help characterize the more individual, reflective elements of each composer.

The next piece, which is another favourite piece of mine has garnered quite a cult following on the internet. It has become an internet meme, as people are beginning to caption the picture with eloquent, and humorous thoughts.

Joseph- Ducreux Portrait de l'artiste sous les traits d'un moqueur (1793)

This photo is clearly indicative of a rebellion and a divergence from the earlier self-portraits of nobility. Instead of painting a calm, almost expressionless demeanor, Decreux opted to do a series of paintings that showed a range of human emotions. His attempts at understanding his own emotions are documented in these paintings and provide a vivid reminder of the laughter, joy, fear, and anguish that is felt differently for everyone, yet still infinitely the same.

This painting has garnered attention recently on social media sites. An example of a captioned picture is as followed.

This last piece, is undoubtedly my favourite of the three. The following is a poem by William Blake, entitled "The Garden of Love"

The Garden Of Love

I laid me down upon a bank,
Where Love lay sleeping;
I heard among the rushes dank
Weeping, weeping.

Then I went to the heath and the wild,
To the thistles and thorns of the waste;
And they told me how they were beguiled,
Driven out, and compelled to the chaste.

I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen;
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;
So I turned to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be;
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys & desires

The reason why I like this piece more than other romantic poetry is that it doesn't limit itself to being only reflective and life-affirming or only gothic, but both. This poem, beginning with a critique on love, progresses to images of nature and "the wild" (Blake 5). After much reflection, the abrupt shift in stanza 5, with the repeated use of "and" in the beginning of each line, suggest an dark, horrific epiphany of the reality of life. Life leads to death, and therefore death must be consulted and reconciled with. Blake also stigmatizes religion in the last stanza, which garnered him much disdain at the time. The use of religion and spirituality as representative of death was quite controversial during this time period, as religion was often observed in a noble and dignified setting.

Quotation: 'Women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government" (J.S. Mill)


This quote suggests that women should have equal assess to governing the state. It brings forth the idea that women should indeed have a voice in parliament and be able to deliberate and pass bills that ought to help other women. The quote was uttered in a time that held a great amount of gender inequality; women were not given equal rights and opportunities and men were often considered superior. This quote serves as a precursor to the feminist movement, and the fact that a man said it helped aid the validity of the statement during that time period. The need for equality is not something that was an issue only for John Stuart Mill as problems of gender inequality still exist in our modern society to this day, but simply to a lesser extent.